Speedy's Corner: A fun interaction at the OTC

WT athlete Blake Piper hanging with some Sochi medalists. Can you name them all?

NYSEF Women's Head Coach Mark 'Speedy' Archer is living in the OTC this winter as a live-in dorm parent when he's not on the road with the U18 women. He had an awesome interaction with some world class athletes recently and wanted to share his experience:

"Last evening I was in the OTC dining room and Erin Hamlin [bronze medalist in Sochi and silver medalist at last weekend's World Cup in Lake Placid] and Tucker West [youngest male to win a luge World Cup-- last weekend in Lake Placid!), their teammates and trainer asked me to turn the TV to NBC so they could watch the Placid World Cup which was being broadcast. They hadn't seen themselves slide on primetime very often, where they could see themselves banking through the turn and whatnot, and I was really moved by that whole scene with them-- just the humbleness of all those great athletes, surrounded by and living with our own kids in the NYSEF program.

They filled me in on technique specifics, and towards the end of the program we sat and chatted about similarities between luge and ski racing. In all my years of coaching [Speedy's been coaching for the better part of the past 30 years!] I never would have thought to compare skiing to luge, but when you think about it, we all put in a million hours/year for 6-10 total performances of under a minute and a half! Really cool, the similarity of the sports, the years, hanging on to dreams, goals, the aspirations to be the best in the world. To be sitting with a couple of these athletes was really incredible, especially their humility, when you compare them to many of the sports stars we see in the media. It's an amazing experience-- to think that our athletes are surrounded by these role models everyday, people who've been in their shoes and are now 15 years down the road, accomplishing those goals they wrote down in training logs decades ago. 

Summer Britcher [Luge athlete-- 6th World Cup] was there while we were lifting with the kids, she's coming through the ranks now. It's hard to describe-- just some really great unity on the luge team, everyone's rooting each other on.

It's all so beneficial for our kids. Priceless. Our athletes are putting in the same dedication to pursue the kind of goals that these people have reached. And they're right there! It shows them, you CAN do this. These athletes started at age 10, 11, you know. Erin is now 27. She's 15, 18 years in, now one of the top 3 in the world. And look at Tucker--he never imagined he'd make it this far, and last weekend-- look, he had his breakthrough and everything has changed."

Speedy in action, Arapahoe Basin, Colorado

Speedy is busy planning "dinner chats" where top-level resident athletes sit down with Winter Term students to talk shop and share stories from the road. Maybe, just maybe, it'll help some of those distant goals to seem all that more attainable. 

We're looking forward to it, Speedy!